OTTAWA -- Finance Minister Bill Morneau will be testifying before the House of Commons finance committee as part of the ongoing study into the controversial decision to grant WE Charity a deal to administer a $912-million student grant program.
Morneau is scheduled to appear on Wednesday, where he is set to face a series of questions from the MPs that sit on the committee about his involvement, both because of his perceived conflict of interest due to his daughters’ connections to the charity, and to probe what involvement his department and ministerial officials had in developing the program.
On June 25, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced WE Charity would administer the government program aimed at helping place tens of thousands of students in volunteer opportunities across the country, and paying them a maximum of $5,000 for 500 hours worked.
WE Charity backed away from the deal in early July, as questions were raised about Trudeau’s and then Morneau’s close family ties to the organization.
Neither Trudeau nor the finance minister recused themselves of cabinet discussions on WE Charity dealings, and have apologized for not doing so.
The Liberals remain adamant that the public service recommended WE as the only organization with the network and resources to administer a program at that scale. Now, the government has had to take on running the program internally and it’s yet to be relaunched, with weeks of summer flying by.
KIELBURGERS TO APPEAR NEXT WEEK
WE Charity founders Craig and Marc Kielburger are also slated to appear next Tuesday, to weigh in on their role in initially pitching a digital youth entrepreneurship program and ending up running a separate multi-million dollar student volunteering program.
In a statement released Monday evening, the organization announced the brothers would appear before MPs studying the nature of the partnership.
"A lot of things have been written and said about WE Charity over the last few weeks," the statement reads. "We look forward to an opportunity to talk directly to Canadians and set the record straight."
OTHER PROBES UNDERWAY
Last week, the finance committee heard from Youth Minister Bardish Chagger about the partnership as well as a few senior public servants who took the lead on the program’s creation. On Tuesday, the committee is hearing from Privy Council Clerk Ian Shugart, Public Service Alliance President Chris Aylward, among other witnesses.
The opposition parties have called on the prime minister and the finance minister to appear before the committee and to disclose as much information about who knew what and when, as well as to turn over all relevant documents about the program’s development.
The House of Commons ethics committee is also deciding whether to launch a study into the safeguards in place to prevent conflict of interest in government procurement, contracting, and granting.
The motion was stalled last Friday when Liberal MPs were accused filibustering the meeting, arguing that the ethics commissioner’s investigations into Trudeau and Morneau were sufficient.
